11/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/11/2016 8:23:06 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/11/2016 8:23:06 AM PST

PreCalculus / Amankwa, Kwadwo (Amankwa)
1.

Heron's formula

Find the area of the triangle below.

Carry your intermediate computations to at least four decimal places. Round your answer to the
nearest tenth.

17 m

13 m

18 m

Given the side lengths of any triangle, we can use Heron's formula to find the area.

Heron's formula:
The area of a triangle with side lengths a, b, and c a
can be found as follows.
b
Area = s sa sb sc
c
1
where s = a+b+c
2

Note that s is the semiperimeter, which is half the perimeter.

For our triangle, we can use a = 17 m, b = 13 m, and c = 18 m.

We first compute s.

1
s= 17 + 13 + 18 = 24 m
2
We then compute the area as follows.

Area = 24 24 17 24 13 24 18

= 11088

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11/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/11/2016 8:23:06 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

105.3 m 2 Rounding to the nearest tenth

2
The answer is 105.3 m .

Explanation (alternate):

1 C
We can use the formula Area = base height .
2
17 m
We'll find the height h corresponding to the base of
h
length 18 m. B
13 m
Using the law of cosines, we first find the measure
of angle A. 18 m

2 2 2
a = b + c 2b c cos A A
2 2 2
17 = 13 + 18 2 13 18 cos A
289 = 493 468 cos A
204
cos A =
468
204
A = cos 1 64.1576
468

We then use this angle measure to find h.

C
Specifically, we'll use the sine ratio in the bold right
triangle. 17 m

h h
sin 64.1576 = B
13 13 m
h = 13 sin 64.1576 11.7000 m
18 m
We can now find the area of the original triangle. 64.1576

A
1
Area = base height
2
1
18 11.7000
2
Rounding to the

105.3 m 2
nearest tenth

2
The answer is 105.3 m .

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11/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/11/2016 8:23:06 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

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